The present invention relates generally to the management and breeding of animals such as cattle for automatic control of animal location to facilitate the breeding at an optimal time.
The invention more particularly relates to a processor control and catch pen system wherein the animals are monitored for heat cycle condition and then lured and caught in a catch pen system having an automatically controlled access gate based on the detected heat cycle data and animal proximity.
Animals, particularly cattle, have been selectively mated for centuries to produce offspring for the purpose that the offspring would have greater economic value than that of randomly mated peers. Historically, this was achieved by segregating females into breeding groups to be naturally bred by a bull which is selected for whichever trait or traits he possessed that are deemed advantageous. An improvement over the natural breeding process is provided by being able to artificially inseminate (xe2x80x9cAIxe2x80x9d) females to elite bulls using frozen semen. AI allows for greater genetic progress because one bull can sire hundreds of thousands of offspring compared to perhaps less than a hundred that could be sired naturally over a lifetime. In addition, using bulls of known genetic potential results in a more uniform and predictable calf crop.
AI breeding is a technical undertaking and is both labor and capital intensive. Accordingly, AI is rarely commercially implemented because of the skills required and the cost involved. Cattle breeding is also highly seasonal, therefore, the skills and capital required for AI breeding are largely idle for months out of the year. Outsourcing for AI breeding is available but is also cost prohibitive for most producers.
The labor costs for the identification, management and catching of cattle at optimal times for breeding is expensive. In a typical operation one or two people would detect heat, sort, inseminate and record data for 100 to 150 heads of cattle over a thirty-day period. Even at $150.00 per day labor rate, the labor cost per animal bred is about $30.00 per head. The substantial elimination of such relatively high labor costs for breeding is the problem sought to be overcome by this invention.
The tagging of cattle with electronic ear tags for wireless identification in a location is well known. Such identification systems have even been exploited in cattle handling and sorting systems in cattle feed lots. (See U.S. Pat. No. 5,673,647 to Pratt and the references cited therein.).
Radiotelemetric devices are also known for monitoring and transmitting heat cycle data for a cow to be bred. (U.S. Pat. No. 5,542,431 to Starzl et al.) However, such heat detection systems are merely useful for the identification of the cattle""s heat cycle and have not been known in a context for managing and sorting the cattle automatically based on such detected data.
There is a substantial commercial need for a system that can facilitate the automatic management and breeding of animals, such as cattle, based on the detected heat cycle data without intensive labor and capital investment.
A method and system for managing and breeding animals, particularly cattle, comprises identifying the animals and monitoring their heat cycles. The detecting of the heat cycles allows the system to decide when it is appropriate to catch an animal for breeding. The catching of the animal occurs when it regularly goes for a bait such as food or water and can be lured into a catch pen having a system controlled catch pen access gate. The detection device identifies when an animal to be caught is near a particular catch pen access gate portal. When the animal is within the catch pen, the access gate closes and the animal is thus caught in the catch pen.
Another more limited aspect of the present invention is that the system further includes a plurality of pre-breeding sort pens. When the animal inventory from a particular catch pen is released, the animals can be further segregated into pre-breeding sort pens wherein assignment or further catching within one of the sort pens is based on the heat cycles for associating the animals by a time optimal for their breeding.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a processor maintains and records the identifying data for the animals, the heat cycle data and control of the access gates so that upon determining that an animal to be caught is adjacent a particular catch pen, the access gate can be opened to facilitate the luring of the animal within the catch pen with the bait.
In accordance with yet another more limited aspect of the present invention, a chute system is provided including chute gates for controlling animal access to the catch pen and to the pre-breeding sort pen.
In accordance with yet another even more limited aspect of the present invention, the catch pen system, radiotelemetric identification and heat cycle detection equipment, the pre-breeding sort pens, and the chute system for communicating the animals there between, are all capable of portability into a particular breeding area to facilitate system selection of breeding cattle at optimal times, and yet with substantial labor cost savings.
A particular advantage of the subject invention is the automatic catching and sorting of breeding animals for minimizing labor and capital costs in the breeding process.
Other benefits and advantages for the subject new animal management and breeding system will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon a reading and understanding of this specification.